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"id": 132932,
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"content": "That money is useless by the time you get it. I want to give an example and thank one media house; Royal Media Services, through Citizen Television. They carried a story about a lady. This lady was a very hard worker at the Kenya National Assurance Company, this was a Government owned parastatal at that time. They stayed on the streets for one year, two years and three years but they could not get any money. Her husband was an agent. The agent also lost his job. They, therefore, had nothing. Their children could not go to school. They waited and waited. Eventually, a decision was made as usual by the Government and she was paid Kshs4, 000. This was after years of street battles. You saw them on the streets. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want us to focus on the Kshs4, 000 because according to Citizen Television, she took the money and went for a prayer session with the family without removing a coin. With the Kshs4, 000, they prayed and then she decided to go to a place called Kiamaiko. Kiamaiko is a place in Kariobangi Estate. She bought some meat. This meat was not meant for a party. With the Kshs4, 000 she bought cheap meat and started hawking it. She sold that first batch. Luckily there were no City Council askaris in sight. They could have taken her money and meat away. She sold the meat to the neighbours. She was a born again Christian. The Kshs4, 000 was now nearly Kshs6, 000 after she sold the meat. She was able to go to River Road to a place called Njoguini and met somebody who was a client a long time ago. She was given an order to supply a whole mbuzi. She carried the whole mbuzi on her shoulders. When she was covered by this media house, she had succeeded in saving up to Kshs900, 000 and she now had a pick-up which she could use to transport the meat. The Kshs4, 000 could have sounded little, but if you are given this money at the right time, it helps. When you wait for the thousands that will never come, you suffer a great deal. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, personally I went to buy property sometimes in 1980 at a place called 87 on Nairobi – Nakuru Highway. It was a quarter and acre of land. They gave me a value of Kshs25, 000 which was too expensive for me. I did not want to buy it because I thought they were exploiting me. Somebody bought it and I came back for the same property in 1991 and it was going for Kshs1.2 million. I went back there and it was going for Kshs2.5 million. It was still the same property and had not been developed. By the time I go there, next year, it may be Kshs3.5 million. If I was a pensioner and I had Kshs25, 000 at that time, then my wealth base would now be over Kshs3 million. That is the power of being given money at the right time. There is no rationale in us holding this money from the pensioners unless we are going to compound it in respect to possible interest. Having worked so hard, they have to wait for the future. In 1983, when most of these hon. Members were working in Government, one US$ was equivalent to Kshs8. Compared to today, when it is nearly an equivalent of Kshs80, tells you the story. So if you are going to hold somebody’s Kshs1 million today, what you are saying is that you want him or her to die before benefitting from what he earned. Remember for all these monies, recovery is compulsory. The Government has the muscle. You do not have a choice not to pay yet you do not have a choice on when to be paid. I do not see the logic and these pensioners should get their funds as soon as possible. I thank Mr. Wamalwa for looking into this issue in depth. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, you do not need to be good in economics to learn that we are still at a stage of growth where we are controlled not only by economic"
}